Staff Picks Format: Book

Bargaining with the Devil by Robert Mnookin [Book]

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The head of Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation, Mnookin offers guidance on how to make a wise decision about engaging with an untrustworthy adversary. He identifies traps to avoid, strategies and tools for analyzing challenging situations. Case studies from the lives of business and political leaders (including Churchill and Mandela) as well as ordinary citizens illustrate the principles and are fascinating stories in their own right.

Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin [Book]

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Grandin transports her readers into the animal mind. She challenges us to approach animals the same way we approach each other- considering the psychology of the individual.The book explores training, communication, trauma, happiness,and natural behaviors. What makes horses spook? How do you train a cat? Why raise happy livestock? The answers may not be what you expect. Grandin brings together scientific research and anecdotal evidence to reveal surprising insights that can improve human-animal interactions in ways that are simple but have enormous impact.

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym [Book]

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Excellent Women is one of Barbara Pym’s best — a funny, engaging, and insightful story of post WWII English life. Like Jane Austen, Pym examines the small, seemingly mundane lives of ordinary people in an extraordinary manner.

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene [Book]

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We are guided through a seaside city in England via a naive, teenage gang leader, his artless and devoted girlfriend and a woman searching for a mysteriously missing man she has only just met. By peering into these characters’ consciences, Graham Greene examines both the concepts of religious sin and morality in this potboiler of a novel.

Halting State by Charles Stross [Book]

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This science fiction adventure takes place in a semi-dystopian future in which our reliance on internet technologies and mobile devices has increased just enough to appear both futuristic and close at hand. The story, written from multiple perspectives and told entirely in the second person, follows a group of strangers brought together by a strange crime committed inside a computer game. The style takes some getting used to, but overall, this is a very fun book.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden [Book]

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Nitta Sayuri is a celebrated Japanese geisha. In this beautiful coming of age story, Nitta shares how she was sold into slavery as a young girl, learns the art of being a geisha, survives World War II, and struggles to win the man she loves.

Calvin Coolidge At Home in Northampton by Susan Lewis Well [Book]

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Using original material from the collections of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum, Well presents the daily life and residences of Calvin Coolidge in Northampton, Massachusetts. She uses new sources to document the unique and interesting personal life stories of Coolidge’s landlords and neighbors.

Copies are also available to purchase in at the library or in our online store.

Open Season by Archer Mayor [Book]

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The 1988 debut of Brattleboro police detective Joe Gunther depicts small town life with all its charms and frustrations. The characters are multifaceted and believable, and the suspense stays on till the end. If you know the town of Brattleboro, you’ll find familiar places and types.

The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis [Book]

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Because she was by nature reserved and even shy, Edna Lewis never received the credit she deserved for helping recreate American cooking in a style that treasured in equal measure our culinary heritage and our fresh, local foodstuffs. In this, her autobiography, she lets us see how this came about—a childhood totally immersed in the living tradition of country cooking as practiced in a small Virginia Piedmont community settled by slaves.

Home by Marilynne Robinson [Book]

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The third in her trilogy about Gilead, Robinson tells the story of a family and its community from yet another viewpoint, that of Glory Boughton the unmarrried daughter come home to care for her ailing father. The character development in an old refrain of loved ones in pain is exquisite. John, her brother the outsider, comes vividly off the pages in his tender love and despair.

Haunted Ground by Erin Hart [Book]

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This character-driven mystery introduces us to Irish archaeologist Cormac Maguire and American pathologist Nora Gavin, who team up to learn more after a decapitated woman is found preserved in a bog in Ireland. Nora is running away from a personal tragedy back in the United States, and Cormac is recovering from the death of a close friend. Together they search for answers in the historical death of a woman, and a current missing woman. The characters are richly drawn, as is the countryside of Ireland, with a strong dose of Irish folklore and musical tradition thrown in.

Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier [Book]

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In 12th Century Ireland, Caitrin is fleeing an abusive suitor and finds work as a scribe to a struggling and crippled chieftain, Anluan. Caitrin goes through his family documents and begins to uncover an evil sorcery that has plagued Anluan’s family. With enemies approaching, Caitrin must help Anluan overcome this evil and save their budding romance. Heart’s Blood is an adventurous love story and reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, one of my favorite fairy tales.